Product Description

GETS NEXT TO YOU, like Green's debut, overflows with cover songs that show this soulster to be a disciple of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. Like Redding, Green pulled material from Motown (in this case, a vamped up version of the Temptations'"I Can't Get Next To You") along with less likely rock hits(Green unleashes his unique phrasing on the Doors' "Light My Fire"). Like Cooke, Green made ballads a speciality. "Tired Of Being Alone", which reached the top 20, was the first in a long string of Green ballads to float up the charts. Green's pleading falsetto, set above Teenie Hodges' understatedguitar playing, a punchy horn section and creamy-sounding backing vocals, set the bar higher for all ballads recorded afterward.
Because he had such a mastery of slow songs, it's easy to overlook Green's funkier side, which shows up on the Stax-flavoured "I'm A Ram" and a rollicking cover of Roosevelt Sykes' "Driving Wheel". And Green tipped his hat to the psychedelic soul movement of the early '70s by writing the Sly Stone-inspired "Right Now, Right Now".

Track Listing

1. I Can't Get Next To You
2. Are You Lonely For Me Baby
3. God Is Standing By
4. Tired Of Being Alone
5. I'm A Ram
6. Drivin' Wheel
7. Light My Fire
8. You Say It
9. Right Now Right Now
10. All Because

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145938 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-20
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Containing a more individualistic style of soul than his la
AlGreen. Everybody knows what he sounds like,right? All of the hits, endlessly re-packaged, always sounding wonderful, gently chugging rhythm, slinky brass,toe-curling backing vocals and, of course, that infinitely flexible,spine-tingling voice. But listen to 'Gets Next to You'.The voice is the same,but somehow more pleading, more soul-laden. The arrangements are more earthy, with a deeply blues orientated feeling.The 'title track': I Can't Get Next to You' for example. Only a year or two earlier the Temptations had released their single of this Whitfield-Strong tune. How it had been transformed! The blues was NEVER as blue as this before! But that was not the end of it. Old war-horses like 'the Letter'( with its wonderful'something -on-a-piece-of-paper' improvisation) ,'One Woman' and even 'My Girl' were totally metamorphosised. Wow! The soul oasis of the early seventies had never seen the like of this. And, of course, there was 'Tired of Being Alone'. Those of us who lived in a desperate world of T Rex, 'glam-rock' and 'soul-is- dead' mantras rejoiced.THIS was what we had breathlessly waited for since Otis Redding's death in '67.

Al Green made some exquisite, heartbreaking music, but, I believe, never quite equalled this, deeply soulful collection.